Construction transport firm JCB has taken its development of hydrogen technology to the second stage by installing a hydrogen engine into a Mercedes Sprinter van.
The retrofit of the van was completed in two weeks and one of the vehicle’s first test drivers was JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford, who is leading the company’s £100 million hydrogen engine project.
The internal combustion engine used in the van is the same as those already powering prototype JCB construction and agricultural machines. The converted van was formerly diesel-powered and the switch to hydrogen will assist in a power shift to reach global carbon dioxide emissions targets.
It is the second Mercedes vehicle to be retrofitted with a JCB hydrogen engine after a 7.5 tonne Mercedes truck was given the JCB hydrogen treatment earlier this year.
JCB has already manufactured more than 70 hydrogen internal combustion engines in a project involving 150 British engineers and they now power prototype JCB backhoe loader and Loadall telescopic handler machines. Last year JCB launched a mobile hydrogen refueller which provides a quick and straightforward way to refuel machines on site. JCB’s hydrogen internal combustion engines are manufactured at JCB Power Systems in Derbyshire.
Lord Bamford said: “We have retrofitted this vehicle with a JCB hydrogen engine to demonstrate how simple it will be to convert existing vans and to show that it is not only construction and agricultural machines that can be powered by hydrogen. While converting vans will not be for JCB to do, it does prove there is something else other than batteries that can work very effectively.”
Image of Lord Bamford courtesy of JCB
